Building a Quick and Easy Corner Cupboard

excerpted from Be Your Own Home Decorator
"Creating the look you love without spending a fortune" By Linda Gannon

If you have a free corner in the dining room and would like to display your good dishes or a treasured collection, but can’t spend the money to buy a new corner cupboard, you can make one!

You will need the following materials:

• Five #2 pine boards (1" deep x 12" wide and 6’ in length)
• 20’ of 1/2" pine molding
• 2" finishing nails
• Jigsaw and punch
• Yardstick
• Hammer
• Level
• A couple yards of string
• 1x4 boards to form the sides and three crosspieces for the cupboard
• Pair of premade doors
• 4 hinges
• 2 knobs

Instructions for Mock Corner Cupboard

A mock corner cupboard can be made by building a frame around corner shelves and adding doors.

1. Make corner shelves, as directed in previous section. (Corner shelves can be easily made that sit on top of strips of narrow molding mounted on the adjoining corner walls.) Ready-made corner shelves are available at home improvement stores.
   
   
2. Measure the finished height of the cupboard, and cut two lengths of 1x4 board, each equal to this measurement.
   
   
3. Place each board perpendicular to one side of the shelves, flat against the shelving and with the edge of the board against the wall edge. Nail the boards to the shelves. Countersink the nail holes so that you can fill them in.
   
   
4. Carefully measure the width between the two side boards at the top, bottom, and middle, where the crosspieces will go. Mark this length with a metal T square along a 1x4 board three times. Cut precisely so the crosspieces will butt up against the side pieces.
   
   
5. Place each crosspiece level across the front of the shelves and attach by nailing through to the shelves.
   
   
6. To attach the doors to the bottom, purchase premade doors from a lumber store. Use hinges that are face mounted with screws. Face mounted means you do not have to cut hinges in with a chisel. If the premade door is too large, it can be trimmed down by cutting and sanding.
   
   
7. Add the knobs. (Knobs are usually installed by drilling a hole just slightly larger than the screw and twisting the knob on.) If desired, you can install doors on the top section of the cupboard as well.

How Many 1x4 Boards are Needed?

You will need two lengths of board equal to the height of the cupboard. For example, if the desired finished height of your cupboard is 8’, you will need double that measurement, or 16’ for the two vertical sides of the cupboard.

For the crosspieces, first measure the total desired width of the finished cabinet. Subtract 4" from each end (or 8" total) from this width to account for the measurement of the two side boards. So if the total width of your cupboard is 32", you will need a 24" board for each crosspiece. Multiply that by 3 (the number of crosspieces), and the total would be 72", or 6’.

Add together the length required for the crosspieces and the vertical pieces: in this case, 16’ plus 6’ = 22’ total required. It is important to purchase 1x4 boards in long lengths so that you do not have to piece any of the framing. In this case, two 12’ pieces and one 6’ piece will work well.

— from Be Your Own Home Decorator by Pauline B. Guntlow.